FIGS. 15 to 17 show a recording-playback device of the autochanger type proposed by the inventors of the present invention and comprising a magazine for accommodating a plurality of disks as positioned upright for playing back the desired disk (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,184). In the following description, the direction in which the disk is loaded will be referred to as the "front," and the disk unloading direction as the "rear. "
The device comprises a magazine 3 formed with 24 disk spaces 31 in a radial arrangement and rotatably mounted on a chassis 2 within the main body 100 of the device, and an inlet-outlet portion 4 and recording-playback unit 7 arranged outside the path of rotation of the magazine 3 and spaced apart from one another.
The inlet-outlet portion 4 has a roller unit 6 disposed between the outer wall of the device main body 100 and the magazine 3 for holding and transporting the disk. The roller unit 6 is provided at opposite sides thereof with sensors SE3 to SE8 for detecting the passage of the disk. The disk spaces 31 are assigned respective identification numbers, No. 1 to No. 24, which are stored in a processor 200 connected to a front panel 20 of the main body 100.
When a disk is inserted into the inlet-outlet portion 4, the sensors SE3 to SE8 detect the passage of the disk, which enters the magazine disk space 31 opposed to the inlet-outlet portion 4. With reference to signals from the sensors SE3 to SE8, the processor 200 stores data indicating that the disk has been inserted into the space 31.
The front panel 20 is provided with a display 330 for displaying, for example, an operating state. With reference to FIG. 17, the display 330 has an indicator 300 comprising segments 310 each comprising a circular-arc contour surrounding the identification number of each disk space 31. The processor 200 turns on the segment 310 corresponding to the disk space 31 into which the disk is placed.
When on, the segment 310 indicates that the magazine disk space 31 of the corresponding number has a disk accommodated therein. If the segment 310 is off, the disk space 31 of the corresponding number is empty with no disk placed therein.
When placing a disk into the device main body 100, the user searches for a vacant disk space 31 with reference to the information represented by the segments 310 of the indicator 300 and enters the identification number of the vacant space 31 on the front panel 20. The magazine 3 rotates, positioning the disk space 31 of the identification number as opposed to the inlet-outlet portion 4 and preparing space for the accommodation of the disk.
Another device has been provided in recent years onto which disks are loaded as classified according to the type of music recorded thereon into groups such as jazz and classical music, so that when a particular group is specified by an input for playing, the disks belonging to the group are played one after another. The inventors of the present invention have previously proposed such a device, which is shown in FIGS. 18 and 19 (see JP-B-176176/1995).
With this device, a magazine 3 is connected to a disk select-takeout mechanism 450. The disk is taken out from the magazine 3 by the select-takeout mechanism 450 and sent to a recording-playback portion 7.
The disk select-takeout mechanism 450 is connected to a system controller 600, which is in turn connected to a front panel 20 having various manual keys and to a memory 290 having stored therein data as to the groups. The system controller 600 comprises a group register means 610 for causing the memory 290 to store the name of the group keyed in on the front panel 20, group indicator means 650 for indicating the name of the group on the front panel 20 and autoplayer means 620. As shown in FIG. 19, the front panel 20 has a display 330, on which the output from the group indicator means 650 is shown in a group indicator box 370a.
When a disk is to be placed into the magazine 3, the name of group to which the disk belongs is entered on the front panel 20. The group register means 610 stores the identification number of the disk space 31 accepting the disk and the group name in the memory 290.
When the disk is to be played, the name of the group is entered via the front panel 20, whereupon the group register means 610 searches the memory 290 for a particular disk space 31 accommodating a disk in the group, and transmits the data to the autoplayer means 620. The autoplayer means 620 gives the disk select-takeout mechanism 450 a command to take out the disk from the disk space 31, and operates the recording-playback portion 7 to play the selected disk.
On completion of playing, the group register means 610 is notified of this, and searches the memory 290 for the next disk to be played. In this way, the disks belonging to the specified group are played one after another.
However, the devices described above have the following problems.
1. When a disk is to be placed into the magazine 3 of the device shown in FIGS. 15 to 17, there is a need to locate an empty disk space 31, enter the identification number of the disk space and rotate the magazine 3 every time the empty space is found. This procedure is cumbersome when many disks are to be invented. PA1 2. Such devices are used chiefly indoors. However, with automobile stereo systems and portable players placed into wide use, disks are frequently used outdoors. There is a case wherein disks belonging to a specified group are withdrawn from the magazine 3 for outdoor use.
With the device shown in FIG. 18, the identification numbers of the disk spaces 31 containing the disks belonging to the specified group must be entered one-by-one on the front panel 20 to repeat the disk taking out operation, hence a cumbersome procedure. Although the disks belonging to the specified group can be played in succession on the conventional device, the disks can not be taken out successively.
Furthermore, it may be desired to stow the disks belonging to the same group and used outdoors into the magazine 3 as originally positioned therein, whereas the conventional device fails to meet such a need.